In Canada it is mandatory to put the list of ingredients on food. However, misrepresentation in the food arena is very real when examining mislabeled deli meats.
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A researcher from Université Laval was interested in food fraud, which consists of missing or substituting an ingredient.
Sylvain Charlebois, specialist in the agri-food industry at Dalhousie University, reacts to this new study presented on Wednesday morning on the sidelines of the Acfas Congress in La Presse.
“I’m not surprised. In fact, I’m pleased that a PhD student is interested in food fraud,” he says.
This study shows that ingredient lists for deli meats state the presence of beef without actually including it.
In fact, no trace of beef DNA could be detected.
The expert argues: “This is not the first time that we have conducted a study on this topic.” In 2019 there was a rather impactful study by the University of Guelph. Same observation: we saw that many samples were mislabeled or the key ingredients were simply not added.”
“Once the label is wrong, it’s food fraud,” he says.
Sanctions for food fraud are very rare, says Mr Charlebois; So far there is only one famous case.
This is Mucci Farms, who sold their Mexican tomatoes and identified them as Canadian.
The Canadian government fined the company $1.5 million in 2016.